The Picture of Dorian Gray: 40 words to know before you read it
The 40 words Oscar Wilde uses again and again in The Picture of Dorian Gray that are outside the 4,000 most common in English. Learn them first and the opening chapters read much more easily. Each comes with its pronunciation and a sentence from the book.
charm/ˈtʃɑɹm/64× in the book
You seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.
murmur/ˈmɝmɝ/44× in the book
The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine …
dreadful/ˈdɹɛdfəɫ/43× in the book
… there have been either so many people that I have not been able to see the pictures, which was dreadful, or so many pictures that I have not been able to see the people …
duchess/ˈdətʃəs/32× in the book
… much liked by every one who knew her, and of those ample architectural proportions that in women who are not duchesses are described by contemporary historians as stoutness.
hideous/ˈhɪdiəs/32× in the book
How perfectly hideous they are!
coloured/ˈkəɫɝd/30× in the book
It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.
delightful/dɪˈɫaɪtfəɫ/29× in the book
A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful.
fancy/ˈfænsi/29× in the book
… and made a little moue of discontent to Lord Henry, to whom he had rather taken a fancy.
exquisite/ˈɛkskwəzət/26× in the book
I had a strange feeling that fate had in store for me exquisite joys and exquisite sorrows.
monstrous/ˈmɑnstɹəs/25× in the book
Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.
worship/ˈwɝʃəp/23× in the book
No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him.
till/ˈtɪɫ/23× in the book
I have always been my own master; had at least always been so, till I met Dorian Gray.
romance/ˈɹoʊmæns/23× in the book
It is a silly habit, I dare say, but somehow it seems to bring a great deal of romance into one’s life.
stain/ˈsteɪn/22× in the book
… thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame—”
exclaim/ɪkˈskɫeɪm/22× in the book
exclaimed Hallward, frowning.
colour/ˈkəɫɝ/21× in the book
Some day you will look at your friend, and he will seem to you to be a little out of drawing, or you won’t like his tone of colour, or something.
theatre/ˈθiətɝ/19× in the book
“Let us go to the theatre to-night,” said Lord Henry.
scarlet/ˈskɑɹɫət/18× in the book
Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair.
shudder/ˈʃədɝ/18× in the book
It makes me shudder when I hear it.
sorrow/ˈsɑɹoʊ/18× in the book
… whose joys seem to be remote from one, but whose sorrows stir one’s sense of beauty, and whose wounds are like red roses.
frown/ˈfɹaʊn/18× in the book
asked Hallward, with a slight frown.
marvellous/ˈmɑɹvəɫəs/17× in the book
It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us.
pity/ˈpɪti/17× in the book
It will be a great pity, for it will alter you.
mutter/ˈmətɝ/17× in the book
“You should have gone away when I asked you,” he muttered.
horrid/ˈhɔɹəd/16× in the book
The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid.
horribly/ˈhɔɹəbɫi/16× in the book
“How horribly unjust of you!”
poison/ˈpɔɪzən/16× in the book
Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us.
tremble/ˈtɹɛmbəɫ/16× in the book
His finely chiselled nostrils quivered, and some hidden nerve shook the scarlet of his lips and left them trembling.
fantastic/fænˈtæstɪk/16× in the book
He was brilliant, fantastic, irresponsible.
silly/ˈsɪɫi/16× in the book
It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
vulgar/ˈvəɫɡɝ/15× in the book
The Academy is too large and too vulgar.
spoil/ˈspɔɪɫ/15× in the book
Don’t spoil him.
jewel/ˈdʒuəɫ/15× in the book
The waving of crooked, false-jewelled fingers gave grotesqueness to the words.
absurd/əbˈsɝd/15× in the book
When we meet—we do meet occasionally, when we dine out together, or go down to the Duke’s—we tell each other the most absurd stories with the most serious faces.
dull/ˈdəɫ/15× in the book
You never open your lips while you are painting, and it is horribly dull standing on a platform and trying to look pleasant.
terribly/ˈtɛɹəbɫi/15× in the book
… Dorian Gray’s good looks—we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.”
upstairs/əpˈstɛɹz/15× in the book
One could hear her singing as she ran upstairs.
shallow/ˈʃæɫoʊ/15× in the book
But the world might guess it, and I will not bare my soul to their shallow prying eyes.
gilt/ˈɡɪɫt/14× in the book
The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine, seemed to make the stillness more oppressive.
fascinating/ˈfæsəˌneɪtɪŋ/14× in the book
I knew that I had come face to face with some one whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so …
Pronunciation: ipa-dict (MIT), from Wiktionary.
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